Background

In December 2009 Corinna discussed the idea with Mark of building a recycling station at the Environmental Education Centre (EEC). This would become part of the education process and be a drop off station for children visiting, and importantly adults living in the neighbourhood to bring their recyclable waste.

"A mind shift and responsible lifestyle change".

As she was always telling the children about the importance of recycling, Corinna felt guilty and slightly hypocritical, in that she and none of the staff were recycling any packaging to demonstrate what they were preaching.
In other words they had to "walk the talk". We all started to bring our waste packaging from home and our daily activities to the recycling station.
Now it is just what we do in the day.

You can also change your lifestyle, it is this easy.

Reason

• The idea would be to make a drop off point for the local neighbourhood, local schools and visitors. 
• It is also place to sort the litter the staff clear from the riverbanks and vlei edges.
• An important point is that the raw material does not have to be manufactured, and
• The perfectly useful material can be used to make new containers and packaging, which you previously sent to the landfill site.

Where

It is next to the EEC.

When

The site is open during office hours 08h00 - 16h00 on week days.

Building the Station.

The structure was totally made from reused materials, available from the stock pile at the Reserve.

photographs by Corinna Keup

The site was selected and the holes for the upright poles were dug next to the EEC.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Corinna cutting the poles to size.

photographs by Corinna Keup

All the staff jumped in to help, the frame was soon up.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Eddie making strapping ties for the poles.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Marisa and Cassy fitting the bags in place.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Corinna the first to put plastic bottles in the bag.

photographs by Corinna Keup

The upright poles getting some colour.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Corinna adding the last coat of paint.

photographs by Corinna Keup

The Team and the reward of the effort.

photographs by Corinna Keup

The three bags for the sorted materials labelled and clearly identified. 
Even the brown cover boards are made from recycled plastic (plastic timber).

Materials which can be recycled at the Nature Reserve station.

• Paper: newspaper normal printing paper, magazines, cardboard.
• Glass: bottles, jars. Not house window panes or motor vehicle windscreens or windows.
• Cans / tins: cooldrink cans, beer cans, Ricoffy tins, Nestle tins, deodorant spraycans, baked beans and sweetcorn tins.
• Plastic lids: of all cooldrink bottles.
• Plastic: all plastic things with a triangle and number in it: See the white notice boards below.
• Type/Number 1 for example: Cooldrink bottles: blue (water), green(water) white(cola and other), brown (ginger beer)
• Type/Number 2 for example: milk bottles
• Type/Number 5 for example: yoghurt, ice cream and margarine containers
• Plastic bags: from all supermarkets, seethrough plastic, which does not make a sound while compressing
• Tetrapaks: milk, juice containers
• Polystyrene / Styrofoam: all packaging for food and consumer goods.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Eddie securing the load with a net, so nothing blows out the full bags
into the road when they are off to Wasteplan.

Recycling at Wasteplan in Maitland.

When we arrived the bags were off loaded so they can be graded, sorted and loaded into the correct bins.
We went on a tour of the site to see what takes place here. 
There is a machine which compresses the plastic into squarish bales so they can be stacked in the outside yard. These bales are then easily transported to the manufacturers premises once an economical load is available.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Eddie and Cassy untieing the net after arriving at the Wasteplan warehouse in Maitland.
Now to find out what takes place, with all the material in the bags we have brought.

photographs by Corinna Keup

There are designated drop off crates with clearly labelled signage.
Bin No.1 has polyethylene terephthalate plastics (PET).

photographs by Corinna Keup

Bin No. 2. - has high density polyethylene (PE - HD) containers.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Bin No. 4  - has low density polyethylene (PE- LD) bags.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Corinna holding a 2 litre cooldrink bottle.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Cassy and Eddie handing over the container tops.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Plastic bottle and container tops of all sizes colours.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Examples of household plastic containers to be recycled.

Newspaper and magazines, any printed paper.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Milk and fruit juice cartons.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Cooldrink and bottles

photographs by Corinna Keup

Soft plastic - shopping bags, dyed and with printing on them.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Soft plastic - clear bags 

photographs by Corinna Keup

Ice cream, yoghurt margarine containers and lids.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Water bottles.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Polystyrene and styrofoam packaging.

photographs by Corinna Keup

More bottles - clear and coloured glass.

photographs by Corinna Keup

Metal tin cans - food and liquid containers.

photographs by Corinna Keup

The baling machine in operation.

photographs by Corinna Keup

The bale being queezed out the front.

photographs by Corinna Keup

It is tied and compressed.

photographs by Corinna Keup

A copleted bale.

photographs by Corinna Keup

The bales stacked in the outside yard.

Cleaning the banks of Zandvlei.

Most of the plastic junk washed up in the on the shoreline can now be sorted and transported to the recycling depot instead of the landfill site, where it has been previously taken for many years.

photographs by Corinna Keup

photographs by Corinna Keup

The litter trap on the Sand River in the flood plain area before it arrives at Zandvlei.